National Sandwich Week.

 National Sandwich Week.

Guess what everybody? You'll never believe it. It's National Sandwich Week. For as long as any of us can remember, the humble sandwich has always been high up on our culinary list of favourite snacks. It acts as the perfect antidote to a hungry office worker desperate for a bite to eat at lunch while juggling a million other onerous tasks such as rushing to the local supermarket for the evening dinner and buying a whole batch of birthday cards for family and friends. Then there's the quick visit to the chemist for another packet of Paracetemol while not forgetting a fleeting visit to the stationers and post office for stamps and writing pads. 

Yes folks lunchtimes are never complete without the great and trustworthy sandwich and where on earth would be be without them? We have a lot to thank the inventor of the sandwich because lunchtimes, or early evening tea times if the mood should take you, are the ultimate answer to an insatiable appetite. It ticks all the right boxes if the boss has been screaming raucously at you for most of the morning and there's a heavy work load on your desk that refuses to diminish. 

You're longing for a pleasant diversion and the clock is ticking slowly, sluggishly and inexorably towards mid-day or one o'clock or whenever it's convenient with your employers because they'll dock your wages if you're not back at work in half an hour. So who does our eternal gratitude extend to at this vital moment of the day? It goes back a century or two and, at the time, the gentleman concerned may have not been acutely aware of the magnitude of his forward thinking or powers of invention. 

So it was the fourth  Earl of Sandwich who gets all the credit and accolades for inventing what we now commonly refer to as the sandwich. During the 18th century, lunchtimes must have been very mundane and almost too monotonous for words. There was the good John Montagu minding his own business and his stomach is rumbling and there's only bread, butter and cheese in the kitchen or parlour. So what does our friendly and noble Earl do? This is the story as some claim it to be. 

The lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses, viscounts and viscountesses of the English aristocracy were all gathering around the card table at roughly lunchtime and they were ravenous and famished, starving but didn't really fancy a hot meal in case it made them feel too bloated and sleepy in the afternoon. A game of poker, canasta, pontoon or any gambling pastime would just not have been the same without something to eat. The good Earl demanded something wholesome and nutritious and he got it with the greatest pleasure since nobody argued with the Earl of Sandwich. 

So the dear John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich had that light bulb moment, a brainwave, a moment of inspiration. He decided he wanted something including the combination of bread, butter and perhaps a generous slice of Cheddar. But he somehow felt obliged to give this new delicacy a name. He thought of himself. And so, on that fateful day from long, long ago, the sandwich was born and we've been tucking into them at the conventional lunchtime hour ever since.

And within perhaps a second or a minute he thought it might be an excellent idea to call the bread, butter and cheese package the sandwich. And so the egotistical Earl of Sandwich grabbed all the day's headlines by naming a delicious food concoction after him? It all felt so natural and logical and why didn't it occur to anybody else that the Earl of Sandwich should create the sandwich. Good thinking and full marks to the good earl.

Nowadays we almost take the sandwich for granted. There is an almost snobbery value about a sandwich consumed from either Harrods or Marks and Spencer because they make the highest quality of sandwiches and also the most expensive. You always know where the sandwich section is because suddenly it appears in your vision and not far from the semi skinned milk and yoghurts and even closer to the the biscuits and chocolate temptations. So you find innumerable shelves stacked high with sandwiches of so many and varied flavours and textures that you feel spoiled.  

So here we go. There's cheese, cheese and pickle, the Ploughman's lunch incorporating tomato, chutney and onion, the egg mayonnaise, the egg sandwich, the roast chicken sandwich, the chicken salad sandwich, and the bacon, lettuce and tomato for those who never eat it since you're a proud Jew and bacon is not for your consumption. But please do continue to eat it because it's traditional and part of our heritage. 

Then there's the club sandwich, the sandwiches with four in a packet which are always filling and rightly celebrated, the prawn mayonnaise sandwiches, the avocado sandwich for those who just want remain svelte, healthy and athletic. There's the simple turkey or beef sandwich and then there's the bread stick which you can always combine with a seductive slice of cream cheese and smoked salmon, eggs Benedict sarnies and now for those who love their sandwich with a touch of class, there's the splendid Subway's roll, a delectably thick roll packed with the aforesaid fillings accompanied by anchovies, tomatoes, onions, olives, lettuce and anything your little heart desires.

Sandwiches have become so much more sophisticated since the Earl of Sandwich thought he'd try something different all those centuries ago. We eat sandwiches on the go, we raided as children the bread bin at tea times for a loaf of bread with anything tasty and irresistible. We packed our sandwiches  with mountains of crisps and lashings of tomato ketchup. For years and years we took our sandwiches to the seaside with our wonderful and lovely mum and dad, grandpa and grandpa and were still eating egg and spring onion sarnies until they were coming out of ears and it was almost tea time.

Then the thermos flasks of tea and coffee would be promptly followed before another round of more sandwiches until our waistlines were on the point of exploding but we didn't mind in the least because sandwiches were good for us and we were all having a brilliant time anyway. Of course there are the picnic sandwiches which are normally the province of summertime and those can be piled high and eaten for ever given half the chance. We tend to think of Enid Blyton's Famous Five when we think of sandwiches.

So the Famous Five venture into the countryside for the day and eat sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and ice-cream in some wild hedonistic adventure. They drink loads of pop, lemonade with yet more sandwiches for tea and supper. It's that important addition to our daily eating schedule. We crave a sandwich on a railway trip home from a busy day, ripping open the packaging enthusiastically because it just feels the right thing to do. Sandwiches are never really given the favourable publicity they probably deserve because, perhaps, we tend to take them for granted. 

We empty the cheese and onion and salt vinegar crisps thrillingly onto our little table before munching our way through this mouth watering, enticing feast. And don't forget the Orange Fanta, or the Seven Up, Dr Peppers, the timeless Coke or Coca Cola, perhaps a Red Bull, or the decadent bottle of coffee or cappuccino. Sandwiches are our best friends and faithful companions. They're seriously underestimated because by the time we come from home school or work, we just want a spaghetti bolognaise, a plate of fish and chips or hearty nourishment such as sausage and mash or a pasta dish and a Sunday roast. 

And so once again you fondly recall your wonderful childhood. Your mind goes right back to your infant school when your late and lovely mum would open up our bread bin in the kitchen. With no prompting or hesitation, she would boil up some eggs. After a couple of minutes, the eggs were sufficiently hard and would be cracked into a bowl where the hard boiled eggs would be mashed up with mayonnaise or salad cream and Bingo. Two neatly cut egg mayonnaise sandwiches were carefully placed into a Tupperware box and that was your lunch taken care of. 

Many of us can never remember when sandwiches were off the lunchtime menu. Now of course the junk food culture has more or less rendered the sandwich redundant.  The global phenomenon that is Mcdonald's, Burger King and even the Wimpy seems to have straddled the ages since the year dot. Since the middle of the 1970s and thence forward, burgers and chips have replaced everything we cherish in good looking food. It is of course a cholesterol nightmare but when did the kids ever complain about that? Now their grievances can only be aired when mum forgets to go into Macdonalds and mum can never be forgiven for at least five minutes. But mums and dads were the best and we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. 

And so it's National Sandwich Week. You wonder what the current generation of  the Earl of Sandwich collective must be thinking of as they tuck into another plateful of sandwiches. Surely they'll finish off their remaining ham and pickle sandwiches which of course we will never devour but you'll always see them at lavish parties or the obvious choices on Boxing Day when all the turkey has been gobbled up. Turkey sandwiches, hey! Just what the doctor ordered.  Sandwiches are so special and uniquely so. The taste sensation is somehow incomparable.